Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - Stoller and Segel triumph with hilarious, multifaceted romcom

♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best Romcom of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year + Best Hawaii Movie of the Year + Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mila Kunis

Jason Segel truly looks like a man who has been dumped on this eye-catching poster for Nicholas Stoller's Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Peter is dumped by his beautiful girlfriend Sarah Marshall and goes to Hawaii to recover, only to find that she is also there, enjoying the surf with her ghastly British musician lover, Aldous Snow.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is written by writer/co-star Jason Segel (Dead Man on Campus (1998)) and directed by great English filmmaker Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors (2014)), whose debut it is. Segel is amazing for having written this film and also playing Pete so wonderfully, with such warmth, detail and unashamed identification. The only thing about Forgetting Sarah Marshall that makes me scratch my head some is Jack McBrayer (Conan (2013-16)), who is cast as one half of a strange honeymooning couple and just rubs me the wrong way.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a post-modern romcom gemstone, funny as hell and full of pain, heart and a really honest treatment of sex, friendship, loneliness and the love that grows in premarital relationships. With puppets! Lots of Hawaii flavor! And wonderful actors like Kristen Bell (CHIPS (2017)), Mila Kunis (That '70s Show (1998-06)), Bill Hader (The Disappearance fo Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)), Liz Cackowski (Community (2009-10)), Jonah Hill (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)) and Paul Rudd (Reno 911! (2006-07)).

Related posts:

Nicholas Stoller: The Muppets (2011) or, Man or Muppet? (co-writer)
Get Him to the Greek (2010) - Brand and Hill light up Stoller's funny music biz satire (writer-director)
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
Gulliver's Travels (2010) or, Gulliver's Travesty (co-writer) 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the very funny yoga scene from the movie here, which features Kristen Wiig (Ghostbusters (2016)) as a ridiculous yoga instructor

Cost: 30 mil. $
Box office: 105.1 mil. $
= Big hit
[Forgetting Sarah Marshall premiered 10 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 111 minutes. Shooting took place in O'ahu, including Honolulu, Hawaii, and in California, including Los Angeles, from April - July (2007). A lot of the film's dialog was improvised; according to Stoller, 30-40 % of the dialog in the finished film was improvised. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Forbidden Kingdom, to a 17.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weeks in the top 5 (#4; #5) and grossed solid 63.1 mil. $ (60 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 15.1 mil. $ (14.4 %) and Australia with 6.3 mil. $ (6 %). The film was snubbed for nominations for all major awards. It sold more than 1.7 mil. DVDs in North America, grossing in excess of 29.1 mil. $, which, if added into the theatrical gross, doesn't change the film's big hit status. Stoller returned with Get Him to the Greek (2010), a spin-off sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which focuses on Russell Brand's (Rock of Ages (2012)) rock-star character Aldous Snow, who need to get to the Greek Theatre in LA for a show. Segel returned in I Love You, Man (2009). Forgetting Sarah Marshall is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

Get Him to the Greek (2010) - Brand and Hill light up Stoller's funny music biz satire

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The two stars are primed to sell Nicholas Stoller's Get Him to the Greek

Jonah Hill (Moneyball (2011)) plays a guy who works for record executive Sergio (Sean Combs (Draft Day (2014)) is surprisingly good in the part) and who gets an idea: He wants to stage a revival concert for British rock star Aldous Snow at the Greek Theatre in LA. The problem becomes how to get the unruly star from London to the gig in 72 hours.

The idea of master writer-director Nicholas Stoller's (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) movie here is funny. The film features a serious satire of the music business, which isn't funny enough, especially in its first half hour, which lags. 
But the tone is adroit throughout, and especially the city scenes with Hill and Russell Brand (Arthur (2011)), who returns as the character from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, are amusing. Elisabeth Moss (A Buddy Story (2010)) does well in a supporting role, SPOILER especially in the threesome scene. It is a shame that Brand's rock songs just don't play well, and they shouldn't have been featured in my opinion. The sentimental ending for Hill's character is also contrived.
Still, Get Him to the Greek is an entertaining comedy.

Related review:
 
Nicholas Stoller: The Muppets (2011) or, Man or Muppet? (co-writer)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 91.2 mil. $
= Flop
[Get Him to the Greek was released June 4 and runs 109 minutes. The film was already announced as a spin-off to Forgetting Sarah Marshall a week after that film's release. Filming took place in London, New York, California and Las Vegas. The film opened #2, behind Shrek Forever After, to a 17.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 60.9 mil. $ (66.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 10.9 mil. $ (12 %) and Australia with 8.4 mil. $ (9.2 %). Get Him to the Greek is certified fresh at 72 % with a 6.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Him to the Greek?

Arthur (2011) - Frenzied, colossal egotrip remake, irredeemable DOA

ZERO

+ Worst Movie of the Year
+ Stupidest Movie of the Year

The poster for Jason Winer's Arthur seem innocent enough, but ...

Arthur is born stinking rich. He lives with his nanny Hobson and driver in a giant apartment in New York, when his unloving mother gives him an ultimatum; to commit to a forced marriage or to lose his fortune.

Arthur is, luckily, an extreme rarity as a major studio production; it is a film completely bereft of value.
The gamble here, it seems, must have been that Russell Brand's (Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)) exhausting personality could carry an entire film on its own. - It can't.
Instead both he and the film here is extremely strenuous to sit through. Arthur is a remake of Steve Gordon's 1981 movie of the same name with Dudley Moore in the title role, written by Peter Baynham (Hotel Transylvania (2012)) and directed by Jason Winer (Modern Family (2009-14)). It is obvious just minutes into the film that it has no real content besides fluff and puff about a pampered billionaire without connection to reality.
Everyone besides Brand, who is kind of excused because a wealth of people must have propped him up to do this, (the starry cast also includes Helen Mirren (The Queen (2006)), Greta Gerwig (Frances Ha (2012)), Jennifer Garner (Juno (2007)), Luis Guzmán (Carlito's Way (1993)) and Nick Nolte (The Thin Red Line (1998))), should have known better than to accept as tasteless, dumb material as Arthur. The film is, simply put, formulaic and cringe-worthily poor, uninspired on all levels.
Arthur is also large and expensive to boot, a truly great waste of money and human energy. Tonally, it splats out across several chairs: Light, breezy fantasy-comedy/raunchy comedy/indie-feel/New York quirk ... None of it works for it. - Arthur is a Hollywood-constructed eyesore of dimensions.
Brand has had a down period since Diablo Cody's very low-rated Paradise (2013), but is set to make a comeback in funny-sounding Nicholas Cage-starring comedy Army of One (2016). 

Related posts:
 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
 

Yes. Jason Winer makes Helen Mirren wear this outfit for his movie Arthur

Not only is the trailer for Arthur long like it'll never end ... even worse, characteristically tastelessly, it uses David Bowie's Rebel Rebel to promote itself

Cost: 40 mil. $
Box office: 45.7 mil. $
= Big flop
[Perhaps the most uplifting thing about Arthur is that it was poorly received by critics and audiences alike and bombed commercially. It was nominated for Razzie Awards for Worst Actor (Brand) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel. It made 32.8 mil. $ (72 % of its total gross) in the US and a big chunk of the rest of its gross (3 mil. £) in Brand's native UK.]

What do you think of Arthur?